Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Samantha Power, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations says imposition of new sanctions against Iran will hamper negotiations over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

“It is still possible to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, but new U.S. congressional sanctions could seriously undermine prospects of an agreement and will end up in isolation of Washington rather than Tehran,” Reuters quoted Power as saying on January 12.

This comes as a group of Republican lawmakers, who won a majority in the Congress,is set to reintroduce a new bill seeking to impose tougher sanctions against Iran in case the negotiating sides fail to achieve the desirable results.

It is expected thatthe new Republican majority in the Senate, led by their leader Mitch McConnell, as well as some Democratswill workover the legislation to expand the sanctions package against Iran and its nuclear program.

Power said some Congressmen believe that the time has come to expand sanctions against Iran, adding that they argue this is the most effective way to forceTehran to give up its nuclear program.

"We in the administration believe that, at this time, increasing sanctions would dramatically undermine our efforts to reach this shared goal," she added.

Power also went on to add that despite tremendous differences between Iran and the international community on some issues in the nuclear negotiations, a long-term accord is still possible.

She further added that the moment the Obama administration decides it is not possible to reach a deal with Tehran, it will join Congress in pushing for new sanctions, noting that "We have not reached that point yet."

The White House has repeatedly stated that additional U.S. sanctions against Iran would "blow up the negotiations" on Tehran's nuclear program.

McConnell and other influential members of Congress from both parties will visit the White House on January 13 for negotiations, one of the key themes of which will be foreign policy.

This comes ahead of new round of nuclear talks between Iran and the six world powers.

The Iranian and the U.S. delegations will hold bilateral meetings on January 15-17 that will be followed by a plenary meeting in the format of "Six" and Iran in Geneva on January 18.

"Six" international mediators [Russia, the U.S., Great Britain, France, China and Germany] and Iran agreed to prepare an agreement in Geneva in November 2013. It ensures the exclusively peaceful nature of Tehran's nuclear program in exchange of full lifting of sanctions. This agreement was not prepared by November 24, 2014. There is only an "interim plan of actions". The sides extended the negotiations until the end of June.

--

Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz